Humboldt Bay (Wiyot: Wigi) is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second-largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon. The bay is home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species. In addition, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds.

Commercially, this second-largest estuary in California is the site of the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California.

The Port of Humboldt Bay (also referred to as the Port of Eureka) is a deep water port with harbor facilities, including large industrial docks at Fairhaven, Samoa, and Fields Landing designed to serve cargo and other vessels. Several marinas also located in Greater Eureka have the capacity to serve hundreds of small to mid-size boats and pleasure craft. Beginning in the 1850s, the bay was used extensively to export logs and forest products as part of the historic West coast lumber trade, but with the decline of the industry lumber now is only infrequently shipped from the port.

Three rivers, the Mad, Elk, and Eel, drained into Humboldt Bay during the mid-Pleistocene. It is estimated that the Wiyot arrived at Humboldt Bay circa 900 A.D.

The Wiyot language is related to the Algonquian language of the Great Plains. While the old reservation is still in use, the tribe moved to the new Table Bluff reservation. The new reservation is roughly 88 acres. Their entire territory was only around 36 miles long and roughly 15 miles wide. To make the canoes, the Wiyot would fell a tree and hollow out the log with fire.

The Wiyot diet consisted mainly of acorns, berries, shellfish, salmon, deer, elk, and other small game.

The Wiyot name for Humboldt Bay is Wigi. Later encounters between settlers and the Wiyot people turned violent, as the settlers encroached on traditional territories. A small group of settlers perpetrated what is known as the 1860 Wiyot Massacre. Every year, around the month of February, the Wiyot people would gather for their World Renewal Ceremony on Indian Island, which lasted 7 to 10 days.

Discovery and settlement

thumb|1848 Russian Hydrographic Dept., Coast of America, latitude 39° to 44° with inset showing Bay of Rezanov

thumb|1852 U.S. Coast Survey chart of Humboldt Bay

thumb|right|[[List of California Historical Landmarks|Landmark at the Humboldt Harbor Historical District recalls the exploits of Winship, Gregg, and the Laura Virginia Association]]

In the early 1800s Americans were drawn to Russian-Alaska by the maritime fur trade. They were searching for the fur of the sea-otter which could be sold for an enormous profit. The trade had been so intense that the number of Alaskan otters had greatly diminished. Captain Jonathan Winship of the Boston ship O'Cain contracted with Alexander Baranov, governor of the Russian-American Company, to hunt for otters along the coast of California. In preparation for the voyage the crew took on provisions for nearly 100 Aleut hunters, 12 native women, and three Russian supervisors. Also stowed aboard were 70 baidarkas, termed "canoes" in Winship's journal. From New Archangel, presently Sitka, the ship sailed south and closed with the coast at Cape Foulweather in Oregon. Several canoes were sent in. For the next week the ship followed the coast while canoes explored inshore. On June 10, 1806, canoes returned to the ship reporting plenty of otters. The scouts had gone ashore and after walking inland, Winship wrote, "they discovered a very spacious Sound." Five canoes went to find the entrance. They returned unsuccessful. O'Cain anchored in nearby Trinidad Bay. The Russians and hunters went ashore to trade for otter skins. Further exploration by small boat located the entrance and revealed the bifurcated nature of the Sound. On June 15 the chief mate and the Russian commander set out with fifty canoes for a "grand inspection." The natives reacted by threatening those who camped overnight. As the number of hostile natives increased, the hunters retreated to the ship. All of the canoes were taken aboard, and on June 21 O'Cain left Trinidad Bay and resumed its voyage to the south. Russians named the discovery the Bay of Rezanov after Nikolai Rezanov, a founder of the Russian-American Company.

Nothing came of the Winship discovery. Decades later, California experienced the Gold Rush. Exploring from his ranch in the Sacramento Valley, Pierson B. Reading found gold on the Trinity River. News of the event drew a wave of prospectors to northern California. With winter approaching, it was apparent that their provisions would be inadequate. A group of eight men led by Josiah Gregg set off in early November to find a route to the ocean. They crossed a succession of mountains. Progress was slow and they ran out of supplies making it necessary to stop and hunt. In places, game was scarce, and they spent days without food. Having crossed the mountains, they arrived at the redwood forest where they found a great mass of fallen timber. Two axemen had to precede the others to cut a way through. Eventually they reached the coast at the mouth of a stream now known as Little River. They headed north until they found their way blocked at Big Lagoon. They returned to what is now Trinidad where they camped. Continuing south, they crossed and named the Mad River. At their next camp, a search for drinking water led to the rediscovery of what is now called Humboldt Bay, December 20, 1849.

At San Francisco there was great interest in finding a sea route to the northern mines. During the first three months of 1850 many vessels sailed to explore the coast. They managed to cross the bar, enter the bay, and land on the point across from the entrance. Later they headed back out to sea, Buhne sounding the channel. Aboard the schooner they decided to send in two boats loaded with passengers, tents and supplies. They landed on the north spit, then the following morning moved to the point. Days later, Buhne met the schooner at sea, and on April 14, 1850, he piloted the Laura Virginia into the bay and anchored off the point. The members of the Laura Virginia Association named the bay and their settlement in honor of Alexander von Humboldt, a noted German naturalist.

Humboldt Bay was surveyed in 1851 by the United States Coast Survey and the first detailed chart was issued.

After two years of white settlement on Humboldt Bay, in 1852 only six ships sailed from the bay to San Francisco. But by 1853, on the same route, 143 ships loaded with lumber for markets crossed the bar. Of those, despite the best efforts of local pilots and tugs, 12 ships wrecked on the bar. In times of bad weather, ships could be forced to remain in harbor for weeks before attempting the crossing.

Engineering

thumb|right|One of the 4,796 dolosse made on the South Spit for use on the south and north jetties protecting the mouth of Humboldt Bay. One dolos was on display in front of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, which moved in 2022.

thumb|right|The donated dolos after it was moved to Madaket Plaza in 2022

The unimproved state of the mouth of the bay was a crescent-shaped bar covered by a line of breaking waves. The jetties are approximately long and apart. In 1983, 1,000 more dolosse were made at the South Spit yard and left to cure; local newspapers named the curing site "Humboldt's Stonehenge." These cumulative changes and water action have resulted in severe erosion at the bay's entrance, where approximately of Buhne Point, which had formerly visually blocked the entrance to the bay, washed away between 1854 and 1955.

thumb|217x217px|[[Table Bluff Beach offers views of the South Spit Jetty. Fishermen are often seen fishing.]]

Most of the large sloughs around the bay have been protected with levees. But because of development by residents and businesses, of the of historic intertidal marsh, only about 10% remains. Other marsh areas were lost to land reclamation for hay or pasture, and construction of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1901. This reduced tidal connectivity along the eastern edge of the bay, which resulted in deterioration of large areas of marsh habitat.

Ecology

thumb|The [[Mike Thompson Wildlife Area is a stretch of beach, dunes and tidal marsh that serves as a popular destination for waterfowl hunting, surf fishing, and clamming on the south spit of Humboldt Bay.]]

Humboldt Bay and its tidal sloughs are open to fishing year-round. A protected area in the bay is the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1971 for the protection and management of wetlands and bay habitats for migratory birds. The Humboldt Botanical Garden, at the College of the Redwoods near the Bay, preserves and displays local native plants. Humboldt Bay is also recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy.

In the winter, the bay serves as a feeding and resting site for more than 100,000 birds. Among these are gull species, Caspian tern, brown pelican, cormorant, surf scoter, and common murre. The federally endangered tidewater goby is found in the bay, along with more common three-spined stickleback, shiner perch and Pacific staghorn sculpin. are in bold.

  • Mad River Slough
  • Liscom Slough
  • Janes Creek (enters the bay as McDaniels Slough)
  • Jolly Giant Creek (enters the bay as Butcher Slough)
  • Campbell Creek (partially channeled to Gannon Slough)
  • Fickle Hill Creek
  • Gannon Slough
  • Grotzman Creek
  • Beith Creek
  • Little Jacoby Creek
  • Jacoby Creek
  • Washington Gulch Creek
  • Rocky Gulch Creek
  • Eureka Slough
  • Fay Slough
  • Cochran Creek
  • Freshwater Creek
  • Little Freshwater Creek
  • Ryan Slough
  • Ryan Creek
  • First Slough
  • Second Slough
  • Third Slough
  • Clarke Slough
  • Elk River
  • Swain Slough
  • Martin Slough
  • Willow Brook/White Slough
  • Salmon Creek
  • Deering Creek
  • Little Salmon Creek
  • Hookton Slough

Harbor management

Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District is the governing body of Humboldt Bay, the Port of Humboldt Bay, and the Port of Eureka. Despite the jetties and dredging, the harbor entrance remains challenging. Only maritime pilots trained and employed by the district are authorized to bring vessels beyond a certain size into the bay, unless a ship's pilot has proper certification. The Humboldt Bay District maintains a 237-berth marina at Woodley Island, serving both recreational and commercial boats and a shipping dock located in South Bay.

Dangerous sand bars and shifting currents have caused many shipwrecks at the entrance to Humboldt Bay, particularly during the late nineteenth century. Forty-two ships were wrecked in and around the channel, most of them while under tow by a piloted tug boat. Fifty-four ships were wrecked on the Humboldt County coastline. Most shipwrecks occurred between 1850 and 1899.

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge

The Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1971 to conserve and protect a diverse habitat full of mammals, migratory birds, fish, amphibians, and plants. In total, Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge is 3,000 acres including the cities and towns of Loleta, Eureka, and Arcata

Restoration projects

Salmon Creek

Humboldt Bay has many different tributaries, such as a river or stream, flowing into larger rivers or lakes For Humboldt Bay, Salmon Creek is the third largest tributary. Just like the name suggests, Salmon Creek has historically supported large populations of coho salmon, steelhead trout, and chinook salmon. Historically, Salmon creek consisted of tidal salt marshes with many sloughs mixed in. Originally inhabited by the Wiyot people, the Lanphere Dunes were under stewardship by new landowners, William and Hortense Lanphere in the 1930s. Along with European Beachgrass, Yellow Bush Lupine (Lupinus arboreus), another invasive species, was introduced from an adjacent property nearby.